Great Film overall

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

This movie is not about the heist of the bank. It is about the heist of the childhood of two young brother and how their robbed youth led to the actions that are this movie.American Heist movie beautifully depicts the inevitable connection/love of sibilings and beautiful depicts in brief: the realities of what goes on in society today (ie: Decline of Small Local Businesses, Sexual Assaults in Prisons, How Debt Affects a Person).Yes, The title of the movie was a flop. Yes, The plot was a little scattered. Yes, The action wasn't the best. And, This was still an unbelieveably written, casted and acted movieAmerican Heist has a prestigious cast of Hayden Christensen, Adrien Brody, Jordana Brewster, Akon and Tory Kittles who all play their parts very well (especially Adrien Brody) and a great touch that American Heist has, that most movie don't..., an unhappy/respectable/emotional ending.

This is one of those movies , and I'll name a handful where it seems like really real. PORT of New Orleans Bad Detective, Scanner Darkly, Less Than Zero....and there are more. But to me, this movie doesn't have any acting. Adrian Brody doesn't know any better than to be bullied by our Black cast.Hayden is his younger brother working as a lube tech and suddenly gets intimate with a new girlfriend that needed him to take a look at her vehicle..who too happens to work at the Police Dept. as a dispatch operator. No problems.Just a sad epidemic of crime,sex,blackmail...and I'm only half way into it... This film could inspire a narration for every episode of INTERVENTION on television. And again, it seems that the white guy is the pawn to the extraordinarily stronger and smarter black guy, who for some reason doesn't get killed arrested or a restraining order against them makes the movie delve as far as it has already.

It isn't fair and it isn't right, but in the minds of many moviegoers, certain performers will always be associated with their most memorable roles. For me, Hayden Christensen will always be Anakin Skywalker, and it's strange to see him in anything but a Science Fiction film, but that doesn't mean he's not capable of playing anything else, as he shows in American Heist. Christensen plays James Kelly, an man who became an ex-con, for simply looking up to and trying to help his older brother, Frankie (Adrien Brody). As James is getting his life on track, Frankie is being released from prison and is of course looking for one big score. Now, James has to decide what's more important, keeping his new life on track or saving his older brother. Hayden Christensen gives an admirable performance, once you get passed the initial shock of Anakin cursing and covered in tattoos, but it's Adrien Brody who steals the show. Brody isn't an Academy Award winner for nothing, as his character pulls at the heart strings and has you running the gambit of emotions. Everyone knows someone like Frankie and wonders which way they'll turn out. In this case, there is also the added incentive of finding out if he'll drag his brother along with him, either way. American Heist isn't the best film out there, the story has been done, and at times, it's a little dull. This film is more about the characters and their values more than anything else. There's a fair share of language and guns, but unlike many other thrillers, that's not really the focus here, which in the end, is appreciated.

Although American Heist was shot in Toronto it also is allegedly a remake of The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery one of Steve McQueen's worst films I didn't see that. If it is a remake it's not a great film, but for once it is an improvement of the former by far.Adrien Brody is released from prison taking a rap alone for a job he and his brother Hayden Christensen did together. That time away from prison allowed Christensen to get into a business and even think about marrying Jordana Brewster. But as soon as Brody is out of prison he sucks in Christensen into a convenience store robbery with a pair of his prison running buddies Akon and Tory Kittles. These two are a pair of stone cold killers with any kind of sense of morality gone from their psyches. They've got bigger plans for Brody and Christensen, a bank heist that could be worth millions.It's a decent enough caper film, bloody as all get out when the plan fails. That last half hour has enough violence in it to satisfy any junkie. But what really gives the film life are the scenes with Brody and Christensen, they really connect as brothers. This is one of Brody's best performances since his Oscar for The Pianist, wasted some might say in a routine action film. As for Hayden Christensen the former Annakin Skywalker gives one of his best screen performances.Action fans will like the action. Some of us who want more will appreciate what the two male leads contribute.